A Singer's Guide to Performing Two Baroque Cantatas: Barbara
A Singer’s Guide to Performing Two Baroque Cantatas: Barbara Strozzi’s L’Astratto, Op. 8, No. 4, and Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre’s Le Sommeil d’Ulisse A document submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in the Performance Studies Division of the College-Conservatory of Music May 2012 by Youngmi Kim BM, Ewha Womans University, 2000 MM, University of Cincinnati, 2003 Committee Chair: bruce d. mcclung, PhD ABSTRACT The secular cantata was one of the most popular genres in vocal chamber music during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Similar to opera in its musical style and dramatic narrative, the Baroque cantata developed in Italy during the seventeenth century, changing from a multi-sectional movement with quick alternations between recitative, arioso, and aria to a multi-movement piece with several pairs of recitatives and da capo arias by the 1680s. This study is a performer’s guide to Barbara Strozzi’s L’Astratto (1664), Op. 8, No. 4 and Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre’s Le Sommeil d’Ulisse (1715). A comparison of two cantatas by women composers, one from mid-seventeenth-century Italy and the other from early eighteenth century France, allows for a study of different forms, singing styles, ornamentation, instrumentation, and the relationship between text and music in the genre’s development over a half-century. This document aids singers in programming this genre and discovering the music of two of the cantata’s most gifted composers.
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